Sight loss charity Vision Norfolk has teamed up with a leading Norfolk garden designer to create a special sensory garden at this year’s RHS Sandringham Flower Show, which takes place in July.
The ‘Vision in Bloom’ garden has been created for the charity by Rajul Shah, a Norwich-based designer who works across Norfolk and Suffolk creating everything from small city gardens to large country gardens.
The Sandringham garden takes the theme of ‘vision and sight’, will incorporate the other four senses of taste, sound, scent and touch, to ensure to ensure the garden can be enjoyed and experienced by everyone, especially people with vision impairment.
“The garden is designed to promote awareness of sight loss, and the way that people living with vision impairment can draw enjoyment and fulfilment through gardens and gardening,” explained Rajul Shah.
“We hope that visitors will take away an understanding that enjoying and appreciating a garden requires the use of every sense, and that people living with sight loss can experience gardens in a way which gives similar pleasure.
“The garden is designed to be easy to achieve, encouraging people – including vision impaired people – get involved in gardening.
“There will be plants with interesting textures, strong scents, culinary herbs for taste, including fennel, sage, oregano, and plants with movement that create sound, such as whispering and rattling grasses.”
The ‘Vision in Bloom’ garden is one of a number of ‘Community Cubes’ – special spaces offered by the RHS at the Sandringham Flower Show for local community groups. It is particularly appropriate for Vision Norfolk to be taking part, as King Charles is Patron of the charity.
“We are delighted and honoured to be invited to be part of the RHS Sandringham Flower Show,” said Rachael Laurie, trustee at Vision Norfolk. “And we are so lucky to be working with Rajul, who is one of the foremost up-and-coming garden designers in our region.”
The garden has also been made possible with donations of plants and compost from Practical Plants of Hinderclay and PlantGrow of Attleborough.
The Vision Norfolk ‘Vision in Bloom’ garden is number 443 at the show, which runs from Wednesday 22nd July to Sunday 26th July. Full details at www.rhs.org.uk/shows-events/rhs-sandringham-flower-show.
The ‘Vision in Bloom’ garden
The themes of Vision Norfolk’s ‘Vision in Bloom’ garden are vision and sight. Shapes and colours are inspired by microscopic images of the structure and anatomy of the eye. The design plays with symmetry to reflect the human face: at the same time asymmetrical but balanced. Visitors are encouraged to look through viewfinders to find their own perspective on the garden.
It also incorporates other senses so that the garden can be enjoyed by everyone, regardless of their vision impairment. There are plants with interesting textures, strong scents, culinary herbs for taste, including fennel, sage, oregano, and plants with movement that create sound, such as whispering and rattling grasses.
Designed to be easy to achieve, the garden sets out to encourage people get involved in gardening. The water is contained in low-level troughs, and all the plants are perennial, so they can return to a garden year after year.
The garden also shows the need and ease with which even small gardens can contribute to biodiversity, by providing food sources and habitat for a variety of wildlife. It also shows the importance of sustainability considerations in material choices, using or recycling materials to ensure a minimal or even positive environmental impact.
Rajul Shah
Based in Norwich, Rajul Shah works across Norfolk and Suffolk, designing large country gardens, small city gardens and everything in between. She is passionate about plants, specialising in wildlife-friendly, plant-filled designs that make the most of a garden’s location and conditions.
Her designs are always thoughtfully tailored to her clients’ needs and likes. She believes all gardens should reflect their place and their people.
Rajul is a pre-registered member of the Society of Garden and Landscape Designers. She has a Diploma in Horticulture and Garden Design, and studied the RHS Certificate in Practical Horticulture Level 3.
Her blog, ‘The Small Gardener’, started in 2015, allows her to share her love of gardening with people all over the world, and to share more personal experiences, including the benefits of gardening to mental health and well-being.
She works at the Norfolk School of Gardening, where she teaches the 1-year Garden Design Diploma. She is a regular guest presenter on BBC Radio’s ‘Garden Party’ programme.
